Where do you buy your backgrounds from?

[gl600]

I'm looking to get 2 or 3 backdrops for portrait work. Really it is for group shots at weddings and other events when the client wants a 'formal' background setup.
My question is where do you buy your backdrops from?
I do not want to spend alot and I do not need the highest quality materials either. The 3 things that I would want is 1) durability, 2) quality enough that the color will not fade from the material (too quickly) and 3) Not a solid color.
Just in case you need to know, I will be getting the following background support:
Impact - Background Support System - 12' Wide - 3046 - B&H Photo
Thanks

 

[magkelly]

Then I suggest you don't buy them.

All you really need for good backdrops is either sheets or some thick white canvas like material from the sewing store, some paints, a book on wall paint finishes from the library, and some hooks on the wall and rings on top to hang them from. It's not hard to make your own and it's a lot less expensive than buying them.

A wanna be photographer friend and I we spent the afternoon painting up a bunch of thick white sheets, then we hung up a couple of laundry bars? Voila! He now has a "studio" with as many backdrops as he could ever want out in the garage. All he has to do if he wants more is paint some more white sheets. He also has a rolling rack he can hang them from so he can do shoots outside the garage too.

Me, I want to devote one room in my house someday to being a studio. I want to actually paint up one wall with a colorful art grafitti thing, put faux bricks up on another, paint one wall white, and then hang a similar set up to my friend's on the fourth so I can change out as many backgrounds as I can make.

I don't have a whole lot of $$$ for a proper studio set up, yet, but I'm definitely the kind of person who thinks out of the box. Photography backdrops and props, they're all around you if you just look and anything you can buy in a photography store that way, except for camera gear, you can probably re-create yourself at the local big hardware store for a lot less.

 

[Jeremy Smith]

I use Photo Pie for my photography backdrops, but it all depends on what types of looks you're trying to achieve. I use backdrops to make it look like I have a lot of different sets in my studio, or exotic locations available. I don't know if that's what you're looking for at all, but they have all kinds of different images and styles, or can print your custom image on the backdrop as well. Even though I haven't tried it yet, I think these types of backdrops would work well for wedding photo booths as well.

 

[NikonME]

Go to your local fabric store and ask for some "muslin". You can buy the size you want. Stitch some seams and then buy some Rit dye.